Learning Modern JavaScript
I have had encounters with JavaScript for years but I have not really taken the time to learn it deeply. To me it was a tool to add some interactivity to web pages back in the day. However, right now I am presented with an entirely different picture. It seems JavaScript runs pretty much the whole internet.
JavaScript used to be a front end tool but now companies of all size use it to power their back end as well. NodeJS which is a server side JavaScript engine makes it possible to run both your back end and front end code in JavaScript and honestly this seems to be a very appealing proposition. Instead of dealing with several programming languages to get your system up an running, it seems attractive to speak just a single language. It is like having your whole team speak the same language rather than trying to learn several dialect.
Companies such as Uber, Walmart and Paypal use NodeJS and JavaScript extensively. Popular JavaScript frameworks such as React, Angular and Vue bring joy and excitement to the world of front end development. It is even possible to use React Native to build native apps for iOS and Android. So given the circumstances one can only expect that JS will continue to soar in popularity.
An added benefit to the JS ecosystem is the fact that a lot of tool and packages are being ported to JS libraries. For instance, right now Python is really strong when it comes to natural language processing and AI-based workloads but I think in the near future most of Python based tools or their spin-offs will emerge in the JS ecosystem.
Considering these circumstances JS seems to be a great language to learn right now. Fortunately there is a lot of material to learn JS (both free and paid). As I stated at the very beginning, I have had a quick and dirty relationship with JS. I learned it barely enough to survive in a given project. But as I learn more about tools such as React, I come to appreciate the fact that I need a thorough understanding of JavaScript. This is where things get tricky because at this point I know enough to survive but not enough to excel in this field. So I have the difficult task of finding out what exactly I do not know and fill those gaps. Most of my learning will probably center around modern JS features. As I said, there are countless resources to learn from but with all of this flood of information comes a certain dose of information overload and the need separate the wheat from the chaff.
In my modern JS learning process, I will try to share the resources I find helpful with you (and of course for myself so that I can go back to them when I need to)
Recommended Reading List
Here I will share some off the articles and tutorials that I have found really useful.
- The article below “Modern JavaScript Explained For Dinosaurs” is extremely helpful. It gives a historical context of how JavaScript changes and the new tools such as npm, package.json files, webpack, hot reloading and new language features in a comparative way. It will definitely help you understand whys and hows of current JS development patterns.
- MDN i.e. Mozilla Developer Network is also hailed as a great resource. It has a section on JavaScript
- Learn ES2015 from Babel’s site. I cannot say the explanations are great. They are high level. I need something more beginner friendly with some step by step examples.
